NASCAR CUP SERIES
NORTH WILKESBORO SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
JULY 17, 2026
Carson Hocevar, driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Camaro ZL1 and the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Silverado RST, met with the media in advance of running double duty in the NASCAR Cup and Craftsman Truck Series at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Media Availability Quotes:
What was your trip to New York like? It looked like you did a lot and met a lot of cool people…
“It was fun. There were a lot of cool people – like LeBron (James) walked by and I was like, should I get a photo? And then I was like, no… I walked over and he was at his table. I sat at a table far away from him and some guy came up to ask for a seat. He happened to know who I was and I knew him. He was like, hey, I’m taking this seat over to LeBron, why don’t you walk over? And so, I walked over and you could tell his security guards just started to swarm in, and then all of a sudden, the guy put his hand up and that’s when LeBron stood up, took his glasses off and then we talked for a while. And then I was like, man, I have to get a photo. It was cool.
And then, I met Prince Harry. I think I was like, man, I wouldn’t make my mom proud if I didn’t ask for a photo. That’s who she loves.”
In these instances, are you introducing yourself and saying who you are? Did LeBron have an idea after hearing your name?
“Yeah, he mentioned that his train’s kid races and he’s starting to get into big cars and stuff. He knew who I was, so I thought that was super cool.”
You’ve been North Wilkesboro Speedway a couple times now. Last week, you kind of talked about the nostalgia. What do you like about the racing here?
“I like that the track seems like it moves around a lot. You can run like right against the fence or you can run the bottom and move around. This place tends to rubber up too, so I just enjoy that there’s so many different ways to go about it. If your car is not very good, there’s probably about four or five different options you can try to go find to make your stuff at least a little bit better because there’s just so many ways to attack the track. It goes downhill and uphill. Part of it is more banked than the other. It just does a lot of weird things that allows us to do different things.”
I saw a video of you on racing simulators, as well. Just beyond who you got to meet, what was the whole Fanatics Fest experience like?
“Yeah, it was just fun to just walk around. I did a bunch of podcasts and ran around New York. Just got to enjoy it. Unfortunately, with all the smoke, it wasn’t super pretty or anything, but it was just fun. I’m not a big city guy, but when you fly private, roll in and have a chauffeur, it’s really not that bad at all. I enjoyed it.”
I know you went to the Met Gala before you were at this event. You’re kind of being the main person going all these, I guess you could say, high-key events, representing yourself and NASCAR. What’s it like going from being this kid running on short track ovals to becoming one of the faces of the sport or true superstar?
“Yeah, it’s great for me. You know, like I say all the time, my favorite driver was Dale Jr. I saw him everywhere, right? You saw him on MTV, the music awards and doing all these really cool things, so I just always thought that’s really what NASCAR drivers do. In the 2000s, it was probably a lot more realistic that they all do it.
It’s really cool for me that. There’s a lot of times where I’m like, I don’t understand why I’m invited to these, but I’m definitely taking advantage of it, enjoying it, embracing it and just trying to have as much fun with it as possible, knowing that obviously it’s a really cool and once-in-a-life experience for me at a lot of these events. But also, too, it’s obviously great for the sport.”
With you running double-duty this weekend, are you taking any extra precautions with the heat this weekend?
“I’ll probably just drink a little bit more water. I’m probably more reactive than proactive at a lot of this stuff. But luckily, I’m reminded a lot that I’m 23 and I can get away with it now. I was like, yeah, but it’s right now. I think I’ll be just fine. I’m excited to run both races this weekend.”
You were in the TIME100. What is it like kind of emerging as a face of the sport and how are you kind of dealing with that?
“It’s been super cool for me. I think Denny (Hamlin) and Michael (Jordan) were in it, as well. But, you know, being the solo (NASCAR driver) in it, I guess, is super fun for me. Obviously, I want to win more, but I think it’s been proven a lot within the sport that you can win multiple races in a row and that doesn’t make you outside the NASCAR bubble, right? If our viewership was based off the racing production, we’d have 10 million live viewers for Atlanta every single time, I think. Ultimately, it’s just getting people to care who’s in the cars. You can have the greatest finish of all time, but if you don’t care who’s involved in the finish, you might as well go watch iRacing, AI Racing, an animation, any kind of motorsport. It’s been super humbling for me to have a lot of people ultimately care about who’s in my car.”
You did the t-shirt exchange thing. Were you surprised by how many people turned in shirts? What was your reaction to how that went?
“Yeah, I was surprised a little bit. I was more so surprised of the numbers for each driver. I was shocked how many it was just for almost everybody. But ultimately, I was just hoping it was going to be a cool experience. I had some buddies that were out there that kind of handled it for me. And I was like, man, I think you guys would enjoy doing it. They were kind of like, I don’t know. And by the end of it, when they came back, they were like, that was so much fun. They had people chanting. When people would walk up with a different shirt, it was like a viewing party just to watch. They would start chants to trade it in, take it off, the whole thing. It seemed like everybody that was there just had a lot of fun with it.”
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